AMHERST — After a day spent occupying part of the school’s main administration building Monday, dozens of University of Massachusetts students intend to resume their sit-in Tuesday as part of a demand that the university divest from fossil fuel companies.
Students agreed to leave the Whitmore Administration Building when it closed at 5 p.m. Monday after receiving word from officials that a phone call with university president Martin Meehan and UMass trustees Chairman Victor Woolridge would be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday to determine how to proceed. But a student representative said the demonstration is not over.
“Having the call does not satisfy our demands,” sophomore Mica Reel said in an email. “However, we negotiated with the administration (Monday) and left the building this evening but will continue the sit-in (Tuesday) morning.”
Reel said the demonstration could last for days.
The students are asking that the board of trustees, which governs the entire five-campus system, commit to divesting from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies by the end of Wednesday.
In the letter to the campaign, signed by Natalie M. Blais, chief of staff for Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, students were informed of the phone call that will take place in Whitmore 337A.
“During the phone call, Chairman Woolridge and President Meehan will give a determination as to whether or not the UMass Foundation will be given a public directive to fully divest,” Blais wrote.
Four to five students were to be invited to the call, with others allowed to demonstrate inside the building.
UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski said in an email that the students protesting were respectful through the day prior to leaving at 5 p.m., when they received the letter from Blais.
Some 30 students began the sit-in at Whitmore at 8:30 a.m. Monday. A rally attended by about 150 people was held outside the Student Union at noon. They marched to Whitmore after the rally, where 20 others joined those who were sitting in, according to Reel.
“For me, divestment is about much more than just an institutional change,” Reel said Monday. “It’s about a shift in values. It’s a shift in basing our school’s investments in values and morals rather than just fiduciary duty and financial and economic gain.”
The campaign’s goals, besides divestment, include establishing a Socially Responsible Reinvestment Committee to implement a divestment and reinvestment plan and invest in specific socially responsible holdings, according to the letter sent to the trustees.
“They haven’t acted with the urgency that the crisis demands,” Reel said.
But Robert P. Connolly, the UMass system’s vice president for strategic communications, said the protesters are asking the wrong people.
The system’s $770 million in endowment assets are managed by the UMass Foundation, an independently run nonprofit corporation.
“Its purpose is to manage the endowment of the university and to conduct business and operations related to endowment and fundraising,” Connolly said.
For example, the decision to divest the university’s holdings in coal companies in December was made by the UMass Foundation. That decision was soon after endorsed by the trustees.
Reel said she had problems with the complex relationship between the UMass Foundation and the board of trustees.
“There’s no transparency there,” she said. The UMass Foundation “should be accountable to the students. They should be accountable to the community.”
Asked if the trustees have the power to direct investment decisions made by the UMass Foundation, Connolly said he did not have an answer and would have to seek a legal opinion.
The board of trustees is scheduled to meet Wednesday at UMass Dartmouth, Connolly said.
Chris Lindahl can be reached at clindahl@gazettenet.com.
